Sustainability 'highly important' to 42 percent of supply chainsEnvironmental LeaderLess than half of executives say sustainability is highly important to their company's supply chain, according to a PwC survey. Of the 42 percent of respondents who rated sustainability as highly important, 87 percent named optimizing their carbon footprint as their top priority for green adherence in their supply chain, according to the PwC's 2013 global supply chain survey, "Next-generation supply chains: Efficient, fast and tailored."

Each member company of the Distribution Centers of America (Team DCA) is a leader in its regional market, committed to customer success in that region. Fortune 500’s to small and medium sized businesses consistently choose regional providers for service responsiveness and flexibility.

Leadership is more than interpersonal skillsHarvard Business ReviewMost of the 89,000 leadership books offered on Amazon.com focus on traditional interpersonal leadership: the relationships between leaders and followers. Interpersonal leadership sets up an expectation that leaders must be in dialog or at least in view of their followers. Yet this style of interaction is less likely as work stretches across locations and company boundaries as we telecommute, crowdsource, and take on joint ventures. Modern leadership may be as much about facilitating strategy through hiring, training, technology, and focused tasks and goals, as it is about face-to-face interaction.

How warehouse slotting supports corporate plottingChain of ThoughtKathleen Shafer, senior director of supply chain transformation for CVS Caremark, was one of many speakers sharing their long-range strategies with attendees of the annual Warehousing Education and Research Council Conference. Just like any educational program, the value it delivered to those attendees depended on how well those students designed their curriculum.

Top 10 loss control tips for 2013: Slips, trips and fallsBy Dennis TruittWhile we all try to plan ahead, slips, trips and falls are often very difficult to foresee. In fact, they are so prevalent you do not even need to be in the industrial, chemical or process-driven work environments to see incidents in this category. The most common cause of fatalities in the home is directly related to falls — which illustrates the concern that slips, trips and falls can happen anywhere. In order to plan and prepare for potential problems, consider the following guidelines.

Share your insightMultiBriefsIn an effort to enhance the overall content of WERCWatch, we'd like to include peer-written articles in future editions. As a member of WERC, your knowledge of the industry lends itself to unprecedented expertise. And we're hoping you'll share this expertise with your peers through well-written commentary. Because of the digital format, there's no word or graphical limit. Our group of talented editors can help with final edits. If you're interested in participating, please contact Ronnie Richard to discuss logistics.

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A global view of paper palletsModern Materials Handling"Pallets move the world." That's the tagline for the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association. When it comes to shipping, there's little question that it's a global world. Pallets produced in North America are likely to end up anywhere thanks to the increase in exports. Similarly, manufacturers in other parts of the world are shipping their products to us on pallets made overseas. For that reason, every now and then it's good to get a global perspective on the pallet market.

Study: Innovation efforts falling short despite increased investmentSupplyChainBrainDespite increased business investment in innovation, only 18 percent of executives believe their company's innovation efforts deliver a competitive advantage, according to an Accenture study that also revealed a risk-averse approach to product and service development.

The secrets to supply chain success in the USChain of ThoughtFew industries have had as rough a go of it in recent decades as the U.S. textile industry, which in terms of jobs has shrunk by 75 percent since the 1970s, from 1 million to about 240,000 today. Most of that exodus has been due to the offshoring of jobs to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America, but that doesn't mean every U.S. textile company has thrown in the towel, so to speak. For instance, Valdese Weavers continues to produce fabric from its home base in North Carolina, and credits much of its ongoing success to lean supply chain management practices.

Murphy Warehouse Co. finds green distribution provides strong business caseThe Green Supply ChainRichard Murphy is the fourth generation CEO of Murphy Warehouse Co., a Minneapolis-based 3PL that is celebrating its 109th anniversary this year. He and the company have a deep commitment to sustainability in its operations, but also a deep commitment to business success. Can those two imperatives coexist well together in a third-partly logistics business?

Is cloud-based WMS ready for prime time?Supply Chain DigestWarehouse Management Systems have been somewhat late joining the "cloud" party, but that has certainly started to change. Just how ready is cloud-based WMS for prime time performance?

Jordan Cohen: Stop telling your employees what to doHarvard Business ReviewThe idea of describing the outcome and letting a skilled professional determine how best to get there often results in a more committed worker, higher quality work, and a proud employee. This is also a very effective approach in getting the most out of knowledge workers.

Report: Supply chain visibility lacking by global manufacturersSupplyChainBrainGlobal manufacturers are putting their supply chains at the center of their business strategies to serve as the foundation for operational efficiency and collaborative innovation, according to KPMG's fourth annual Global Manufacturing Outlook. The report, titled "Competitive Advantage: Enhancing Supply Chain Networks for Efficiency and Innovation," surveyed 335 C-level executives globally — including 95 in the U.S.

Robots: Coming soon to a DC near youDC VelocityMore robots can be found on Mars today than in the nation's warehouses, says Tom Bonkenburg, director of European operations for the consulting firm St. Onge Co. But that's about to change. A mechanical engineering graduate from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bonkenburg has been fascinated by robots since he was a child. His dream is to see robots working alongside people in distribution centers. Although that idea may have been far-fetched when he was younger, technological advances are starting to make that dream more realistic.

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Army/Air Force Exchange: Reporting for dutyModern Materials HandlingThe base Exchange store is both a perk and tradition of military life. Every day, millions of active duty and retired service personnel and their families shop at the Exchange for everything from candy bars to lawn mowers. Merchandise is typically less expensive than similar product in civilian stores and often carries no sales tax. What's more, most profits from the store are used to support community activities aimed at improving morale among service members and their families.

The maturity of the pharmaceutical supply chainThe 21st Century Supply ChainTrevor Miles writes, "Several colleagues and I attended the recent LogiPharma 2013 conference in Geneva, Switzerland. We were fortunate enough to have a customer, Elisabeth Kaszas of Amgen, speak at the conference about 'A Journey to Optimizing Global Network Planning,' in which Elisabeth discussed the market forces that drove them to re-engineer their global network planning organization and processes."